Have Scientists Found A Second Earth? Astronomers Spot Potentially Habitable Alien World

Scientists have
found the second closest planet to Earth that is most likely habitable. The
planet dubbed Ross128B is located 11 lightyears from Earth and has an estimated
temperature equilibrium between -60 and 20 degrees Celsius.

The
discovery of Ross128b makes it the second closest planet to Earth that is most
likely habitable, after Proxima b.

Astronomers
note that this alien world is the closest planet ever found that orbits an
inactive red dwarf star—Ross 128—which increases the chances that it is a
planet that could potentially harbor life, reports the European Southern
Observatory (ESO).

Scientists
made the discovery using a unique instrument in its class called the HARPS
planetary hunter, installed at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Ross 128b
will be a perfect target for ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will
search for biomarkers in its atmosphere.

This
exoplanet orbits its host star every 9.9 days.

Despite
being the most common, red dwarfs are one of the coldest and weakest types of
stars in the universe. This makes them very good targets for the search of
exoplanets, and potentially habitable words, which is why scientists are eager
to study such stars in more detail.

Many red
dwarf stars, such as Proxima Centauri, emit flares that occasionally bathe the
planets that orbit them with lethal ultraviolet and X-ray radiation.

However,
according to scientists, it seems that Ross 128 is a much ‘quieter’ star, which
makes any planets that orbit it in the Goldilocks zone a very likely place where
life as we know it can thrive.

A planet
similar to Earth

Astronomers
believe that the newly found planet has a similar size to Earth and has a
temperate climate, with surface temperatures similar to those on Earth.

“This
discovery is based on more than a decade of HARPS intensive monitoring together
with state-of-the-art data reduction and analysis techniques. Only HARPS has
demonstrated such a precision, and it remains the best planet hunter of its
kind, 15 years after it began operations,” explains Nicola Astudillo-Defru
(Geneva Observatory – University of Geneva, Switzerland), who co-authored the
discovery paper.

It’s moving
towards us

Although
Ross128B is currently eleven light-years from Earth, the star system is moving
toward us and is expected to become a close stellar neighbor in 79,000 years, a
“relatively short period of time in cosmic terms,” ESO reports, noting that “by
then, Proxima b will be dethroned and Ross 128 b will become the exoplanet
closest to Earth.”

A climate
similar to that of Earth

Using HARPS
data, the team discovered that Ross 128b orbits its star 20 times closer than
the distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun.

Despite the
proximity to its star, the planet receives only 1.38 times more radiation than
Earth.

As a result,
it is estimated that the equilibrium temperature of Ross 128b is between -60
and 20 degrees Celsius, due to the weak and cold nature of its small red dwarf
star, which has little more than half the surface temperature of the Sun.

We still
don’t know if it’s in the habitable zone of its star

While
scientists involved in this discovery consider that Ross 128b appears to be a
temperate planet, uncertainty remains as to whether the planet is inside,
outside, or on the threshold of the habitable zone, where liquid water may
exist on the surface of a planet.

Experts are
convinced that future studies may shed light not only on whether Ross128B can
host life, but whether or not it orbits its star in the habitable zone.

“New
facilities at ESO will first play a critical role in building the census of
Earth-mass planets amenable to characterization. In particular, NIRPS, the
infrared arm of HARPS, will boost our efficiency in observing red dwarfs, which
emit most of their radiation in the infrared. And then, the ELT will provide
the opportunity to observe and characterize a large fraction of these planets,”
concludes Xavier Bonfils.

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